A few weeks ago Google posted a very slick interactive slideshow highlighting the new Google Maps of the pyramids in Egypt. You start at the top of the presentation here, and then you just begin scrolling down. The next slide is a regular Google Maps page that you can navigate, and then each next page is a series of clickable history lessons. You can lose hours, and we've embedded a video at the bottom to give you a sense of what's afoot.

That got us thinking though: getting to the pyramids is easy enough once you're in Egypt, but if Google is really going to start putting locations in middle of the desert on Street View, how exactly is that going to happen? Those GPS mapping machines are not small. We know how they do paved streets, and we've seen how they do rivers, and walkways inside zoos, and everything in between. But all of those are places either inherently accessible - like rivers - or designed to be that way. Deserts are more or less the opposite.

It turns out that they're going to use camels. Because of course they are.

It’s the middle of the week, so why not step away from that spreadsheet and take a little break with a new game from the folks over at Google Maps. They call it Smarty Pins, and it is a little bit of geography travel with a tech twist.

Instead of you searching for locations on the map the game gives you clues based on events, places, or fictional storylines—then you just go ahead and drop a pin on the location you think fits the clue.

Google Street View is on the move again, and this time they’re heading somewhere that lacks any roads—the water.

The camera and photo arm of the search giant just finished checking out one of the ships over at Royal Caribbean, as Allure of the Seas smiled and posed for well over 20,000 images of all its goings-on.

We have a long-standing policy against implying or suggesting or hinting - let alone declaring - that gee-whiz Google Maps and Google Earth technology can allow people "travel without ever leaving home." That phrase needs to be driven out of the lexicon, then captured as it tries to flee, then cast into the sea in a chained iron box protected by witchcraft and pirate curses.

That said, this thing that Google did where they put a bunch of the FIFA World Cup 2014 stadiums on Street View is actually pretty cool. It's not "just like being there." It's not even the "next best things to being there." But it's still pretty cool.

Grabbing a ride from the friendly folks over at Uber just got a little bit easier, as everyone’s favorite mapping software now includes integration with the rideshare service.

The latest update from Google Maps on your mobile device now supports Uber, and if you have the Uber app on your phone as well, Uber cars show up alongside the usual options (driving, public transportation, walking) when searching directions.

Great Scott! Okay—so we might not be able to go back in time in the near future, but Google Maps is doing their best to show off the next best thing. They’ve added a nifty little feature to their mapping software, and that means your day at the office will be filled with this excellent distraction and time waster.

At this point you’re probably pretty darn familiar with Google Street View, and now it’s being taken to the next level. When you virtually walk through a neighborhood be sure to check for the availability of a little clock icon in the upper left part of the screen. Obviously Google has a whole bunch of image data from when they started doing things, and you’ll be able to take a look back in time as far as the Google archives can handle it.

Searching Google Maps yields all kinds of "Easter Eggs"little surprises tucked away but discoverable to those paying close attention. For example, there's planes flying by, Britain's most picturesque streets, and even the world's largest slip and slide. But it's a feature found in the no-man's-land Ténéré region of the Sahara Desert that really raises eyebrows. Enter coordinates 16° 51′ 53.75″ N, 11° 57′ 13.36″ E into Google Maps and find a tiny dot that is actually a massive shape of an airplane.

This, a landmark hand-built of rock and one of the aircraft wings, is actually a memorial to the 170 people on UTA Airlines 772 who perished when a terrorist suitcase bomb exploded the aircraft in 1989.

There's no question that Google has done incredible work when it comes mapping our world. We can literally log on and take a virtual journey through the streets of places we've never physically been, which is not only a saving grace when it comes to directions and logistics, but it allows potential travelers to get some inspiration to go along with a preview of their destination. In that sense, we have to tip our cap to Google and its infamous "street view" project.

But that being said, it should come as no surprise that Google's actions, both in the U.S. and in other countries, have been highly scrutinized and criticized. Turns out, Google has been collecting much more than intersections and street signs - it's also collecting personal data via open Wifi connections, including emails, passwords, web histories, etc.

It's been only a couple of years since Google Maps made the leap into airports, mapping the inside of - depending on what kind of a day we're having - either our favorite or absolutely least favorite places in the world. Since then the Mountain View kids have not only expanded their airport offerings, but have even gone inside actual airplanes 'waiting' on the tarmac. What's left to do?

Do more and go bigger, obviously. TechCrunch reports that Gatwick Airport has become the newest location to receive Google's 360 degree panoramic Street View treatment. The UK airport - the second busiest in the country - is now apparently open to virtual touring. It only required stitching together 2,000 overlapping photos, matching the results to the airport's actual layout, and uploading everything. Piece of cake.

Yes, another post about about Google Street View adding another picturesque part of the world to its ever-increasing inventory of picturesque parts of the world. These are coming at the pace of once a month now: in August it was Peru and then last month it was Swaziland We'll stop posting them when they stop being neat. So not for a while, no.

This month it's Iceland. According to the News Of Iceland, Google spent the summer mapping out areas in and around Reykjavík, and got around to activating the service inside the country in the last few days. The creatively-named news outlet even has a map showing all the roads where you can zoom in and have a look around. Or you can just follow the instructions below, if you want to look around yourself.

Travel news so fresh it hasn't even hit Wikipedia yet, is what we're providing you guys with today. We know because we were doing background reading on this story about the introduction of Google Street View to Swaziland, and we checked the "Google Street View in Africa" Wikipedia page, and it says that Street View "has been planned for Swaziland."

The shot above - of Swazi beehive huts at the Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary - is pretty good evidence that it's much more than planned for Swaziland. The African country has become the fourth on the continent to get Street View, and virtual travelers can now move around the parts of the country. Look how far ahead of the curve you are now that you've read and/or are reading this story!

Last March we told you about one of the newer and more creative Google Street View efforts, which had the Mountain View giant mapping towns and cities in Japan that had been abandonedand were now functionally inaccessiblebecause of the Fukushima disaster. We always knew the radiation-soaked areas were going to be off-limits for a long time, but in recent days new readings have transformed "a long time" into "a very, very, very long time." This is all by way of saying that if you want to "visit" those areas, you're going to have to do it over the Internet.

Now comes word via the Google Maps blog that you can see more of those areas than ever before. The blog postwhich formally announced the addition of 17 cities within the hazard zonebegins by linking to information about the project itself.